Which Nats player makes my 2025 NL all-star team?

It’s that time of year when the MLB All-Star Teams are selected and I select my NL all-star team. As usual, my selections are based on objective statistics—primarily three statistics: wins above replacement (WAR) for 2025, for 2024, and for the player’s career. (See last year’s article for details on the weights that I use.)

I use a standard formula in order to treat all teams and players fairly. In contrast to most writers, I think it’s important to include statistics from the prior season because research shows that at takes at least a season for the most important statistics (such as on-base percentage and slugging percentage) to stabilize and become reliable indicators of a player’s ability. For example, Juan Soto has gotten a lot of criticism from Mets fans for his “disappointing” performance so far this season. After all, he’s hit “only” 17 home runs, his batting average is “only” .253, and his season-to-date fWAR is “only” 2.1. Those, of course, are very good numbers, but if we were only looking at the statistics for the 2025 season (through June 24), they might not be enough for him to make the All-Star team. But in assessing his ability and likely future performance, we shouldn’t ignore that fact that last season he hit .288 with a .419 OBP and 41 home runs and was worth 8.2 WAR. Soto remains one of the best players in baseball and is likely to add an additional 3 WAR by the end of the season. He deserves to be an All Star.

Like the MLB All-Star Teams, my NL team requires that all teams in the league be represented. For the last two seasons, the Nationals representatives were consolation picks—players who wouldn’t have made it based on the statistics alone but were selected ahead of another player with more points in order for their team to be represented. This season, the Nats have three emerging stars, and I hoped that one of them would make it on their statistical record. CJ Abrams has earned 2.5 fWAR this season (after 1.9 last season) and my system gives him 17.6 points, a number that puts him in the vicinity of all-star selection. Unfortunately for him, the shortstop position is stacked in the NL, and his points total only ranked sixth among NL shortstops (behind Lindor, Turner, De La Cruz, Betts, and Swanson). So, Abrams didn’t make it. This season MacKenzie Gore has emerged as an outstanding pitcher, with a 3.19 ERA and 2.94 FIP through June 24, worth 2.6 fWAR and 2.6 RA9-WAR, giving him 18.1 points in my system. The result is that he also falls just a little bit short of making my team (though he pitched well this afternoon in today’s 1–0 loss, so maybe if I reran the numbers tomorrow…)

James Wood seems to have had the best chance of making my team without requiring a consolation pick. While he doesn’t pick up many points from his 2024 season, his 3.4 WAR so far in 2025 gives him enough points (22.7) that he was in the running. As with Abrams, part of his problem is that this season the corner outfield position is stacked in the NL. (My system treats center field as a separate position, selecting two center fielders, but combines the right- and left-field positions to select four corner outfielders.) Three corner outfielders—Tucker, Carroll, and Tatis—all actually have slightly more WAR than Wood this season (as well as significantly more in 2024), so they are all ranked ahead of Wood. As we’ve also discussed, Soto gets picked based on his superb 2024 season (along with some good statistics for this season). After picking the top two candidates at each position (or top four for corner outfield) the team needs to add two additional position players, and my system selects the two players with the most points. De La Cruz, with 25.5 points, got the first slot, and Betts with 23.1 points would have gotten the second spot. If there had been a third spot, it would have gone to Wood with his 22.7 points. But so that the Nats can be represented, Wood bumped Betts from that last position-player slot and made the team.

Here is my 2025 NL all-star team

Starters:

C – Will Smith – Los Angeles Dodgers (22.9)

1B – Freddie Freeman – Los Angeles Dodgers (23.6)

2B – Ketel Marte – Arizona Diamondbacks (28.9)

3B – Matt Chapman – San Francisco Giants (24.8)

SS – Francisco Lindor – New York Mets (33.1)

COF – Juan Soto – New York Mets (29.0)

COF – Kyle Tucker – Chicago Cubs (26.8)

CF – Pete Crow-Armstrong – Chicago Cubs (27.0)

DH – Shohei Ohtani – Los Angeles Dodgers (36.9)

SP – Chris Sale – Atlanta Braves (30.9)

Reserves:

C – William Contreras – Milwaukee Brewers (19.4)

1B – Bryce Harper – Philadelphia Phillies (20.2)

2B – Nico Hoerner – Chicago Cubs (18.8)

3B – Manny Machado – San Diego Padres (24.7)

SS – Trea Turner – Philadelphia Phillies (26.9)

SS – Elly De La Cruz – Cincinnati Reds (25.5)

COF – Corbin Carroll – Arizona Diamondbacks (25.6)

COF – Fernando Tatis, Jr – San Diego Padres (25.0)

COF – James Wood – Washington Nationals (22.7) (*selected so the Nationals would be represented)

CF – Andy Pages – Los Angeles Dodgers (20.0)

DH – Kyle Schwarber – Philadelphia Phillies (19.8)

SP – Zack Wheeler – Philadelphia Phillies (30.3)

SP – Paul Skenes – Pittsburgh Pirates (29.7)

SP – Logan Webb – San Francisco Giants (24.7)

SP – Christopher Sánchez – Philadelphia Phillies (20.9)

SP – Ranger Suárez – Philadelphia Phillies (20.1)

SP – Hunter Greene – Cincinnati Reds (19.9)

RP – Randy Rodríguez – San Francisco Giants (11.0)

RP – Tyler Rogers – San Francisco Giants (10.6)

RP – Jake Bird – Colorado Rockies (10.5)

RP – Ryan Helsley – St Louis Cardinals (8.1) (*selected so the Cardinals would be represented)

RP – Anthony Bender – Miami Marlines (5.0) (*selected so the Marlins would be represented)